Physics Textbook Recommendations
Physics (also known as "natural philosophy") is the analysis of nature that is conducted in order to model phenomena to describe how the universe behaves and gain partial understanding of it. One must keep in mind that physical laws and theories are never proven nor refuted but examined on how well they are in agreement to observations and in what domain of physical parameters (speed, temperature, pressure, field strength, etc) they remain in acceptable agreement with experimental observations. While it may be very tempting to assume our equations are the unbreakable rules or source code of the universe, we must realize that such absolute knowledge is fundamentally and hopelessly unknowable. High School High school/freshman physics is a broad survey of the the fundamentals of physics: Kinematics and Mechanics, Waves and Acoustics, Thermodynamics, Electricity and Magnetism, Optics and Light, Special Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics which may or may not be done in that order and may have a brief superficial discussion of further topics like Solid-State, Nuclear, or Particle Physics. The mathematical prerequisite is just Precalculus/Trigonometry but with the assumption you are at least taking the Calculus sequence at the same time as a co-requisite and topics from calculus will steadily appear as you progress. Of course, already knowing some calculus ahead of time will be an added benefit. *Young and Freedman - University Physics with Modern Physics The following are "honors" level alternatives to the above tome but they don't quite cover everything (such as fluids and other small topics) so be aware to supplement them if you insist on studying out of them. Alternatively, you can use them for additional practice and insight with the above text (but don't feel obligated to read them before moving on to undergraduate level books). The level of required math is a bit higher and assumes you already know calculus. # Kleppner & Kolenkow - An Introduction to Mechanics # Purcell & Morin - Electricity and Magnetism # Georgi - The Physics of Waves # Fermi - Thermodynamics (Dover Books on Physics) # Eisberg & Resnick - Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles Undergraduate The essential mathematical prerequisites are Vector Calculus, Matrix Algebra, and Ordinary Differential Equations. You're also assumed to be concurrently learning Partial Differential Equations, Probability, Fourier Transforms, Complex Variables, Special Functions, and Calculus of Variations as you progress. Most books will tend to have some brief introductory remarks on them when needed but it will only cover just enough material to solve the chapter's problem set and are really designed to serve as motivation to go out and fully learn them. The more math you know in advanced, the clearer the material will become. Beyond these topics, physics majors are expected to take a number of labs and seminar courses on Error Analysis, Electronics and Instrumentation, Scientific Integrity (You might think it's unlikely but fraud in physics research does happen. The most famous example being Jan Hendrik Schön who was once thought to be on his way the Nobel Prize in Physics with completely fraudulent fabricated research), and Experimental Modern Physics. Required Reading * Feynman - Lectures on Physics (Supplement for insight into physics) Classical Mechanics * Taylor - Classical Mechanics Electrodynamics * Griffiths - Introduction to Electrodynamicshttp://academic.reed.edu/physics/faculty/griffiths.html Errata (The standard at most universities) * Schwarz - Principles of Electrodynamics (Dover Books on Physics) (A cheap alternative and/or supplement to Griffiths, it's a tad more advanced and mathematical and with an emphasis on SR) For more on applications when you're done, see EEE's Electromagnetics recommendations. Thermal Physics The books on Thermal Physics aren't as great as you would hope they be. If you have the time, try to work through an Engineering Thermodynamics textbook to build up your familiarity with the subject matter before attempting to dive into the theory. * Schroeder - An Introduction to Thermal Physics [Site] * Kittel and Kroemer - Introduction to Thermal Physics * Reif - Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics Quantum Mechanics * Griffiths - Introduction to Quantum Mechanicshttp://academic.reed.edu/physics/faculty/griffiths.html Errata (better for students with little exposure to QM) * Townsend - A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics (undergrad version of Sakurai) * Shankar - Principles of Quantum Mechanics (better for students with stronger preparation) Additionally, the following books take a more conceptual and foundational approach rather than problem solving focus the above have. * Schumacher and Westmoreland - Quantum Processes, Systems, and Information * David Bohm - Quantum Theory (Dover Books on Physics) (Sadly no Bohmian Mechanics, does a great job linking the development of quantum mechanics from classical mechanics) * Peres - Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods * Bell - Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy Special Topics Optics * Fowles - Introduction to Modern Optics (Dover Books on Physics) For more information on optics, see EEE's Photonics and Optics recommendations. Solid State * Simon - The Oxford Solid State Basics (2013) * Harrison - Solid State Theory (1970) (Dover Books on Physics) * Ashcroft & Mermins - Solid State Physics (1976) * Ziman - Principles of the Theory of Solids (1979) For more information on semiconductors, see EEE's Semiconductor Device Physics recommendations. Atomic Physics * Foot - Atomic Physics * Bransden and Joachain - Physics of Atoms and Molecules * Haken and Wolf - The Physics of Atoms and Quanta: Introduction to Experiments and Theory Nuclear Physics * Krane - Introductory Nuclear Physics See also Nuclear Science and Engineering Particle Physics * Griffiths - Introduction to Elementary Particleshttp://academic.reed.edu/physics/faculty/griffiths.html Errata * Thomson - Modern Particle Physics Astrophysics *Carroll and Ostlie - An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics *Ryden - Introduction to Cosmology *Choudhuri - Astrophysics for Physicists See the Astronomy Textbook Recommendations for more advanced material on astrophysics. Relativity * Schutz - A First Course in General Relativity * Kolecki/NASA - Foundations of Tensor Analysis for Students of Physics and Engineering With an Introduction to the Theory of Relativity Graduate Required Reading *Landau & Lifshitz - Course of Theoretical Physics Volumes 1-10: *# Mechanics (Covers classical mechanics without special or general relativity, in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms) *# The Classical Theory of Fields (Covers relativistic mechanics of particles, and classical field theory for fields, specifically special relativity and electromagnetism, general relativity and gravitation) *# Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory *# Quantum Electrodynamics *# Statistical Physics, Part 1 (Covers general statistical mechanics and thermodynamics and applications, including chemical reactions, phase transitions, and condensed matter physics) *# Fluid Mechanics *# Theory of Elasticity *# Electrodynamics of Continuous Media *# Statistical Physics, Part 2: Theory of the Condensed State *# Physical Kinetics Analytical Mechanics * Goldstein - Classical Mechanics * Corben and Stehle - Classical Mechanics (Dover Books on Physics) * Arnold - Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics * Whittaker - A Treatise on the Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies (Classic reference) Classical Electrodynamics * Jackson - Classical Electrodynamics (Required hazing - no exceptions) * Smythe - Static And Dynamic Electricity (Harder than Jackson) * Schwinger - Classical Electrodynamics * Zangwill - Modern Electrodynamics Quantum Theory * Sakurai - Modern Quantum Mechanics * Sakurai - Advanced Quantum Mechanics (dated but useful to bridge QM to QFT) * Gottfried and Yan - Quantum Mechanics: Fundamentals[Errata] (Modern, rigorous, and complete) References * Messiah - Quantum Mechanics (Dover Books on Physics) * Dirac - The Principles Of Quantum Mechanics (Classic) * Cohen-Tannoudji, Diu, and Laloë - Quantum Mechanics: Volumes 1&2 Path Integrals * Feynman, Hibbs, and Styer - Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals: Emended Edition (Dover Books on Physics) * Schulman - Techniques and Applications of Path Integration (Dover Books on Physics) * Kleinert - Path Integrals in Quantum Mechanics, Statistics, Polymer Physics, and Financial Markets Quantum Field Theories *Peskin & Schroeder - An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory *Weinberg - The Quantum Theory of Fields General Relativity *Schutz - Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics *Wald - General Relativity *Misner, Thorne, & Wheeler - Gravitation Mathematics Resources * Hassani - Mathematical Physics: A Modern Introduction to Its Foundations * Szekeres - A Course in Modern Mathematical Physics: Groups, Hilbert Space and Differential Geometry * Nakahara - Geometry, Topology and Physics * Frankel - The Geometry of Physics * Reed & Simon - Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics I: Functional Analysis; II: Fourier Analysis, Self-Adjointness; III: Scattering Theory; IV: Analysis of Operators String Theory * Becker, Becker, and Schwarz - String Theory and M-Theory: A Modern Introduction * Polchinski - String Theory, Volume I: An Introduction to the Bosonic String & II: Superstring Theory and Beyond External Links Book Recommendations Chicago Undergraduate Physics Bibliography Gerard 't Hooft's guide on becoming a good theoretical phycisist Stack Exchange Physics Book Recommendations A Physics Book List: Recommendations from the Net Other Wolfram Physics World